Could that be a euphemism? I don’t know, but I often hear the appearance of attacks on close people, family members, friends, people who are just listening to notice that “something” has changed in their way of expression, in articulation and rhythm. I myself follow it in my thoughts, in the words I speak and write: “What is the name of an old, unbound book? Ah, now, mammoth,” with a second of hesitation in between. Or “what day was the date with friends? Let’s look at the agenda.”

I can’t call memory gaps in scientific terms, because that’s not my field. I collect only what happens around me and in my generation due to the influence of years, some faster than others. What kind of life must a person have if, without falling into the possibility of illness, the use of intellectual abilities weakens faster or less? Today, many want to prevent deterioration: you must read often, they say; you always have to learn something new; Physical exercise also has an impact on brain activity, they believe. I come from a time when I ignored that advice. They worked and lived intensively. Gyms and healthy food were not in fashion.

Nevertheless, I remember how impressed I was by Don Xavier Zubiri, the great Spanish philosopher I had the opportunity to meet, when he told me that, since he was retired, he had begun to study Aramaic. At over eighty years old, he learned the language of Christ! He remains a shining example of what it means not to surrender to the web of age or close the stage of inner growth.

He who is abused by fortune may be struck by the cruel blow of reduction or delirium. A mind that remains blank despite the experience of communication, in the case of North American Senator McConnell, confusion of names, forgetting the identity of the person in front of us makes the triumph of time apparent and, if we are lucky, the achievement of the condescension of others. Perhaps it would be desirable to identify the stage and live in easy renunciation of what life takes away. Just like you take loved ones.

In her book The danger of being sane (Seix Barral, 2022), Rosa Montero reflects on the relationship between creativity and mental health, so that the “different” feel proud, that is, those who do not fit into the mold. that society created for people. Will anyone make the old man proud, I wonder, far from the model of virtue and wisdom defended by tradition. And as I always have literary works to support my observations, I remember the nursing home from the novel Cien cuyes – which I have already commented on in this space -, by the Peruvian Gustavo Rodríguez, in which the residents are placed in different personalities, but all focused and ready for the same goal : die and die with joy.

I think that our “broken head” will be perceived more by others than by ourselves. Or will we understand it by the look of confusion, impatience or tolerance that the speaker gives us? Shall we tell him the same anecdote from yesterday? Shall we return to our childhood and praise our parents – which is as if our heroes – left the present? If this is the law of life, all you have to do is quit your job. (OR)